Lucky Miles

On February 22nd I'll be travelling to South Australia to attend the world premiere of Michael James Rowland's debut feature Lucky Miles, the opening film of The Adelaide International Film Festival. Produced by Blink Films; the film tells the tale of 3 men lost in the Australian desert, it's a black comedy about difference, distance and dud maps. For information on the festival check out www.adelaidefilmfestival.org.

For those of you listening to Eastside 89.7 FM last week you would have heard me review Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration. Not a bad effort but when compared to Best in Show the film has to be called a disapointment. A shame; when I interviewed Parker Posey last year she certainly built up my anticpation but unfortunately For Your Consideration isn't worth considering.

Morricone Conducts Morricone DVD review

Having seen the maestro perform at London's Royal Albert Hall a few years back it was with great excitement when I opened up a package from Umbrella Entertainment containing a copy of Morricone Conducts Morricone and I'm happy to announce the disc doesn't disappoint. To be honest though how could it when the great man has some of the greatest soundtracks of all time up his sleeve.

Some of the magic is obviously lost in translation, the thrill of seeing a full 200 piece orchestra and choir performing classics from movies like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in The West and The Mission, in the flesh cannot replicated, no matter how good the sound system but Morricone Conducts Morricone makes a valiant stab at it. The camera work is a bit static at times and the use of stills is formulaic at best but if you close your eyes and let the aural majesty of Morricone's music weave its magic, you simply just can't go wrong. The fact that he plays passages from my favourite soundtrack of all time Once Upon a Time in America probably makes me slightly biased but this disc is highly recommended, in fact the only real downside is the lack of any music from Danger: Diabolik

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all. Well 2007 has already been a busy year, here's the latest publications that have featured my work.

The last two issues of Shivers magazine, issues #130 and #131, have featured my previews of The Ferryman and The Disturbed respectively. Future issues of the magazine will feature my interviews with director Greg McLean on Rogue and actor John Rhys Davies on The Ferryman.

Issue #5 of Smoke & Mirrors will feature my interview with Bruce Woloshyn, the visual effects supervisor on Night at the Museum and the most recent Film Review magazine includes my interview with A Clockwork Orange star Malcolm McDowell. As always I have also been conducting my regular vox pops interviews for Film Review in Sydney; the latest being The Queen outside The Dendy Opera Quays. The fabulous Cinema Retro magazine will also feature my large feature on the making of Danger: Diabolik in the next issue.

Finally I have recently been invited to be a member of The Sydney Film Festival. It's a tremendous honour and I very much look forward to working with the festival in the future.

The Queen

For those in the Sydney area I'll be reviewing Stephen Frears excellent film The Queen this Friday at 17:30 on Eastside 89.7 FM's Cinemascape Show. The show will also feature reviews of Babel and Marie Antoinette.